Private investigators and Internet researchers may have to look beyond public records and personal information databases to develop profiles of students. Student directories, which can list a student’s full name, email, field of study, address and year of graduation, confirm attendance and suggest other research avenues.

I searched a name at a search engine that returned the student’s Facebook link. Her Facebook page had limited information available, but the public profile stated she was a student at Hofstra University, graduating in 2009. Search the Hofstra student directory by partial first or last name to confirm enrollment and to go to the student’s personal Web page, if she has one. The school also has a Student E-Mail Locator, searchable by partial first or last name. This can be a useful tool to confirm that your subject is enrolled in a particular college. The site doesn’t release the email address, but it will forward your email to the student so she can choose whether to contact you.

Not everyone has a Facebook or MySpace page, so don’t stop there when you’re looking for Web pages for a student. Hofstra also hosts student personal Web pages, but you wouldn’t find this one indexed in a major search engine, only through a student directory name search at the Hofstra site. When you’re locked out of one site, look elsewhere. You may get lucky and find your student here. Remember, not all Web pages are going to be found through a search at Google or Yahoo! Build on the personal data you collect to shape the keywords you use in searching and the sites you go to.

Looking for other student directories? If you don’t find it at the school site, or you’re looking more broadly, here’s one search query example.

Was “Student Directories for People Finder Searches” helpful?

Alaska is purported to have instituted one of the strongest identity theft protection laws through HB 25.

Although the bill sets out restrictions on the collection, sale and distribution to third parties of Social Security numbers, the exceptions should cover the normal course of business for private investigators.

A transfer of an individual’s social security number for the sole purpose of identifying a person about whom a report or database check is ordered, received, or provided is not a sale, lease, loan, trade, or rental of a social security number under this section.

Providing your clients an individual’s social security number is permitted if the purpose is regulated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act or by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Disclosure is permissible if it’s “for a background check on the individual, identity verification, fraud prevention, medical treatment, law enforcement or other government purposes, or the individual’s employment, including employment benefits.”

Also, the police department may create a database of identity theft victims. If it does, it “shall provide a victim or the victim’s authorized representative access to a data base established under this section to establish that the individual has been a victim of identity theft. Access to the a data base established under this section is limited to criminal justice agencies, victims of identity theft, and individuals and agencies authorized by the victims.”

Idaho court records index for all 44 counties is online at the Idaho State Judiciary, Supreme Court Data Repository. Search by partial name for records from 1995 forward (some older cases may be available, according to the court Web site). The search form suggests that date of birth is a required field, but I found that a search by name only worked.

The index lists party names, city and state of residence, county of filing, case numbers, charges (or case type, in civil filings), filing or violation date, disposition and register of actions. Year of birth is listed on criminal cases. If a case has been sealed, that is noted. The cases are sorted by county. If there’s more than one case for that person in the selected county those are all listed on one page.